Mask or no mask, there was hiding the disappointment on Valtteri Bottas' face yesterday. He effectively lost his race at the start, allowing Max Verstappen through and even Lance Stroll.

Since his win in the Styrian Grand Prix, it's been relatively slim pickings for Bottas, third in Hungary followed by the puncture in the British Grand Prix, then thirds in the Anniversary race and Spain.

As a result, Bottas, who was recently retained for another year at Mercedes, slips to third in the driver standings, 43 points adrift of his teammate.

"Disappointed of course," he said at race end. "It's far from ideal and I have no clue actually what the points difference is, but it's way too big," he admitted, "and I can see again the championship drifting away.

"I will take a couple of days to look at everything and see what went wrong and again move on," he continued, "but obviously at this point it's very disappointing."

Asked specifically about the start, he said: "I had a bad start compared to Lewis and when you are at the front the effects of that are even worse because the cars behind you get a big tow out of you.

"First I tried to go left, to get a tow from Lewis, but Max was already there and then I tried to go to the right, to have the inside line, but one of the Racing Points was there.

"Then I had cars outside and one on the inside so they were ahead of me going into Turn 1, so I was sandwiched.

"Everyone knows how tricky it is on this track when you lose two places at the start.

"Of course, we tried everything we could, the pace was strong and the tyres were holding on a bit better than expected. We tried something different at the end for me, even making an extra pit stop to get the fastest lap, which worked. For me personally, of course it was a very disappointing day.

"I know I will always bounce back and no doubt in Spa, as always, I will be in full mental health, giving everything I have. But for now I just want to be somewhere else than here."

Asked what went wrong, he said: "I can't say. I had a good start in the first race and the pace all season, in every single race, in qualifying has been super-close, every single time with Lewis.

"Apart from the first race, it's been pretty bad," he added. "There's not been a weekend that has gone smoothly without issues, apart from the first one. So it's nice to have a break."

Check out our Race Day gallery from Barcelona, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 19/08/2020 0:44

"I think someone needs to take Bottas aside and let him know that it was never on the cards in the first place. To even consider that MB would in any way support anyone other than LH is a function of dreamtime. He is a support act that needs to look good for the team but anything other than that is not going to happen. The two biggest egos in the paddock are in interdependent lockstep all the way. "

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2. Posted by zoom, 18/08/2020 20:24

"Time for Bottas to tell his new squeeze to stay home! He needs to concentrate on driving!"

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3. Posted by alistairmx, 17/08/2020 14:44

"New girl friend getting into his head could be his problem???"

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Bottas admits that championship is "drifting away"

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